


The Gift

by jakinly



Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-26 18:26:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19011394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jakinly/pseuds/jakinly
Summary: Several months after 2x13 and a shocking gift is given to Beth, but does she want it?





	The Gift

**Author's Note:**

> So let me start off by saying this is one of the first legit things I have written for a fandom, so it might not be as stellar in comparison to what other people have written. But, I do take constructive criticism if you have any. I hope you guys enjoy it. Also, not sure yet if I'm making this a one-shot fic or will continue with my own spin on how things might turn out. Any mistakes are my own.

It’s a quiet summer day in her house today leaving her to clean her kitchen and wash whatever dishes were left for her this morning after breakfast was done. She doesn’t have the kids with her right now. Beth dropped the boys off at Dean’s apartment after breakfast because he wanted to take the boys on a camping trip for a few days. Things have been going steadily fine between her and Dean as far as co-parenting, pickups, and drop-offs. The kids have been taking it all surprisingly well and have been taking it all in stride. A couple of hours ago, one of her  PTA  friends wanted Jane and Emma to have a play-date with her little ones and offered to take her girls to the park for the afternoon. Having no qualms about it, Beth agreed and ha d  been left alone to her own devices. 

Which means her mind usually wanders to the same image that just never leaves her be. Rio lying there in his own pool of blood. It's not just her mind though. Sometimes she’ll just see him standing there, in her kitchen, at the park, in her bedroom. He never speaks or does anything he just stands there tilting his head the way he usually did with a slight smirk on his face. 

She won’t speak to him. Knows he’s not really there but sometimes she’s caught staring into the distance for a particularly long time. Remembering Annie calling her out on it at one point. 

_ Beth is getting snacks in order because the kids are going to be let out of school in a few hours and knows if she doesn’t do this now, they’ll come home and start grabbing anything and everything; especially the boys. They have been hungry little monsters and will inhale anything insight. She called the girls earlier to meet her at her place so they can talk about things concerning their book club endeavors. Ruby is not here; she’s been very hesitant and wanting to be left out on certain things and just wanting to spend whatever free time she has with her family. Which Beth understands and doesn’t push things on her. Annie is here though.  _

_ Things have been going slow and not exactly how she thought it would be going. Beth doesn’t have the connections Rio had, doesn’t have the pills, doesn’t have the businesses. She has the money, but what good is the money if she can’t move it? It has been hard with everything moving at a snail's pace and its stressing her the hell out!    _

_ “it aint easy bein a king, is it?” Beth can hear Rio say mockingly in her head. _

_ That’s when she sees him though. He’s standing in the same spot he once did when she invited him into her home. Beth wishes he would say something. Hell, anything! Argue, yell, maybe even have his spirit  _ _ throw something at her. Like if he’s come back to haunt her ass at least haunt her properly! But he doesn’t. Rio just stands there. She justifies what she did to him in her head, she has to. It was him or me, going on and on like a mantra stuck in her head. Because if she doesn’t, she’ll breakdown and realize she killed a man. Not any man though, she killed him. Beth killed him and took a father away from a little boy. She couldn’t kill Boomer, couldn’t kill Mary Pat, she couldn't even kill Agent Turner and they’ve all been a major thorn in her side since day one. Her rotten eggs. But she killed him. She killed him. She... _

_ “Hey! Yoo-hoo earth to Beth” She hears Annie say distantly, although she’s only a few feet away from her sitting on the stool.  _

_ “Did you even hear a word I just said, or anything I just said within the last several minutes? Or is there something more fascinating about your counter-top over there?” Annie says. _

_ “What? Oh, no just a thought came up. Something I forgot to pack the kids this morning” Beth wishes she said that more convincingly cause now Annie is giving her a look. _

_ “Right, Are you okay?” Annie is now giving her a look of deep concern. She's been doing that a lot lately. Like she can see straight through her.  _

_ “I’m fine” Beth knows the moment it comes out it sounds strained to even her own ears. Annie waits a beat. “Listen,...I know we haven’t really talked about that night. Or why gangfriend is...”  _

_ “Rio” Beth doesn’t know why she felt the need to interject his name. Or was it Christopher? She truly doesn’t know if that was even his real name. She doesn’t even know his full name. Her chest tightens at that thought. There’s so much more she could have learned about him and from him.  _

_ “Okay, well Ruby and I don’t even know why Rio is gone” Beth understands this all may have been confusing for them. She never outright told them he was dead or that she’s the one that killed him. _ _  Just told them that he was gone. Told them that Agent Turner was gone and that they were free. _ _  She figured if she spoke it out loud it would make everything real. So, she's doing what she does best and living her life in denial. Beth knows she’s going to explode eventually, knows everything is going to reach a tipping point. She can feel it vibrate through her body and bones.  _

_ “But whatever happened is eating you up inside and whatever it is I know has to be terrible when you won’t even talk to me or Ruby about it” Annie gives her a long sympathetic look and they just stare at each other for what _ _  feels like hours to her instead of seconds. Beth doesn’t know how to quite respond to all this. So, she does what she does best. _

_ “Like I said, I’m fine” Beth thinks she sounds more convincing this time, but quite frankly she doesn’t care. She just wants to change the subject.  _

_ “Let’s get back to book club shall we” Beth finishes packing her last snack bag she has for the kids. _

_ “Alright” Annie says, looking like she has more to add instead she reaches over the kitchen counter-top to steal one of the snack bags she had set out for her kids because of course Annie would do that. She’s a hungry little monster as well.  _

Beth wishes she would have told Annie that day. Wishes she wasn’t such a coward and utter the words that have been haunting her. That she’s capable of murder. Wishes none of this would have happened in the first place. 

She wishes for a lot of things. 

She wishes she can say that night was a blur for her, that she doesn’t remember how they got to the point they did but that would be a lie. She remembers every word she said, every word he said, and even all the tiny movements they made that night. She panicked. Her finger was on the trigger, and she panicked when he moved towards her. 

Beth remembers the look on his face when that first bullet echoed out. It wasn’t dread or fear.  First it was the look of shock written on his face like he couldn’t quite believe she turned his gun on him and pulled the trigger. The next look though, that’s what really frightened her. The look of anger and fury. He’s been angry with her before. Hell, they’ve both been angry with each other. But the look he gave her like a storm ready to blow over, she knew it was either him or her in that moment. There was no way he was going to let her walk out of his loft once he got a hold of his gun. So, she shot him again and then again.  She doesn’t even think she realized in that moment how many times she shot him. Just that he was now on the floor bleeding out. 

The walk home now was a different story. Beth doesn’t remember how exactly she got home. Just remembers walking home in a daze and disoriented. She remembers herself endlessly walking and walking not really remembering the streets she took or if anyone tried to stop her to ask why she looked so disheveled. Then suddenly she’s in her neighborhood in front of her house. 

Beth  has to  shake these thoughts from her. Knows its where her mind always goes to, but if she plans on keeping her sanity, Beth knows she needs to stop. She needs to tell someone. Needs to confess. More importantly, she needs to confess it to herself or its going to eat at her until there is nothing left. 

She also knows she needs to get lunch ready because her girls should be back pretty soon, and they’ll be hungry from all that playing in the park. 

Beth sets out to start making some ham and cheese pinwheels with a side of crackers, fruit, and juice when she hears her doorbell. Heading towards her door and opening it she doesn’t even have time to process what’s happening when two little bodies barrel in right past her. Her PTA friend Susan for the most part looks exhausted having to take care of four children eight and under. Making a mental note she’ll go with her next time because she knows her children have such high energy; especially Jane. 

They talk for a few minutes and exchange pleasantries before Susan must leave. Walking back into her house she hears the chitter chatter in her halls that was just moments before they arrived eerily quiet. Jane and Emma are sitting on the couch aimlessly talking. Jane with her little backpack still on because she insisted, she needed to take some toys to the park with her. 

“Hey you two. Did you girls have fun?” Beth asked, which she knows is a pointless question because going off the looks on their faces they had quite the time. 

“ Yesss!” they both say in unison. They start going off and listing all the things they did. Everything from playing on the monkey bars, to swinging, to playing tag.

“Well, that all sounds amazing” 

“Why don’t you two go wash up and I’ll have our lunch ready on the table, okay?”

“Ok, mommy" Emma is the first to say.

“Mommy, can we eat outside on the picnic table?” Jane pleads, Beth knows she can never resist when Jane starts pleading the way she does. 

“I don’t see why not, it's beautiful outside” and it really is a beautiful day “but first you two need to go wash up” They start to rush off, even almost tripping on their own two feet. She heads back into the kitchen to get their  lunches  settled when Jane comes running back in. 

“Hey, little Missy!” Beth knows there is no way  Jane cleaned up that fast and is ready to admonish her, but Jane interjects before she can.

“I almost forgot mommy; I have a gift for you” Jane takes her little backpack off her shoulders and starts rummaging through her stuff. 

“You have a gift for me?” Beth hopes it doesn’t have anything to do with mud. She just cleaned the kitchen not too long ago.

“No, not from me. From your friend” Jane is still searching for this gift of hers. Just wondering how many toys her child took with her.

“Well, I’ll have to remember to tell Susan thank you then” Beth continues to stare at Jane wishing she had her phone on her because the look of sheer determination with her tongue poking slightly out of her mouth is the most adorable thing and it kind of reminds her of Annie when she was a child.

“No mommy, your other friend”

Whatever Jane was looking for she finally found it because she made the loudest victory noise . 

Beth couldn’t believe what she was looking at. All she could do was just stare at her daughter for the longest and her outstretched arm with her gift wrapped around her little fingers . 

“Mommy? Aren’t you going to take your gift silly?” Jane for the most part looks as patient as can be. Beth feels like she can’t move though, she feels frozen.  

Its pearls Jane has wrapped around her fingers. More specifically, it’s her pearls. 

Her pearls. 

Which means.

“Mommy?”

“Baby, which of my friends gave you this?” Beth can hear her voice, realizes how high pitch it sounds with a hint of, well with a hint of something. Fear, dread, uneasiness, terror. Hell, take your pick she’s feeling all of it because she already knows what her answer is going to be. 

“Your friend... The one with drawings on his neck” Jane says, tilting her head slightly the way kids usually do when something confuses them. 

No

That can’t be.

“Sweetheart, Are you sure?!” 

“Yup, it’s from Marcus’s daddy”

“He said it’s a gift for you.” Jane continues.

“Told me to tell you that you can’t return it though cause he didn’t get a gift receipt” 

_ “Yeah, well, I didn’t get a gift receipt” _  Beth remembers him saying that night. She has a million things processing through her mind. She reaches weakly for the pearls knowing her daughter will start to get impatient with her if she has to stand there with her arm stretched out any longer than she needs to.

Jane runs off to go get cleaned up leaving Beth just standing in her kitchen.

Her mind is racing with one thought jumping over another.

She shot him three times.

She left him for dead.

How is he alive?

She didn’t kill him

A relief pours through her in that moment. Rio’s not dead, she didn’t kill him. 

But then just like that it feels like ice is poured throughout her veins. Because Rio has always been an eye for an eye type of guy and if he’s not dead. She feels the tremors; knows she's probably hyperventilating. She clutches her pearls to her chest. Beth knows he’s sending her a message with the pearls. That whatever sentimental value he might have had for her is severed and gone. 

She doesn’t exactly know what he has planned but knows whatever it is isn’t going to end well for her. 


End file.
